Political Insider: To get to Christie, HCDeadO must go through Sen. Sandy

DYLAN WILSON / THE JERSEY JOURNALGOP Gov.-elect Chris Christie's victory is about to trigger some Hudson County chaos. He is shown here during a campaign stop at Boulevard Drinks in Jersey City's Journal Square.POLITICAL INSIDERGov.-elect Chris Christie named his transition team and he included state Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham, a Jersey City Democrat from the 31st Legislative District.

Did Christie, Danaus plexippus (biggus), create a hurricane in Hudson County by winning the gubernatorial race and dropping Cunningham's name?

The Hudson County Democratic Organization boat is heeling and may not have enough lead in its keel to prevent it from capsizing. Most in danger of falling overboard is County Executive Tom DeGise, who is trying to smooth the local waters.

While making nice, DeGise and others in the HCDeadO would like nothing better than to deep-six Cunningham's Senate re-election effort in the county Super Bowl election of 2011 when senators, Assembly members, and county freeholders are on the ballot.

Christie's victory makes this goal more difficult. As of this writing, the highly computerized county elections apparatus still does not have an official breakdown, by municipality, of vote totals in the November general election.

Consider that while defeated, Corzine did win in Hudson County. The big vote totals were in the 32nd and 33rd districts, domains of Sens. and Mayors Nick Sacco of North Bergen and Brian Stack of Union City, respectively. North Hudson had more than 3 to 1 vote margins for Corzine, bigger than that of South Hudson.

At the other end of the county map, Peninsula City citizens came out for Corzine, but only by a margin of somewhere between 800 to 1,200 votes -- probably closer to the smaller figure. It should have been a margin of between 3,000 to 4,000 votes, say Dems.

Bayonne's numbers boost Cunningham's chances for re-election in 2011. She only has to make a few allegiances with people like Freeholders Jeff Dublin and Bill O'Dea, and possibly Jersey City Councilman Steven Fulop, and she can win.

She doesn't need a big organization like the HCDeadO for a victory. DeGise does.

To survive, the county executive needs serious help and to that end he will probably not support Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy in June for another go as chairman of the HCDeadO. This organization is mummifying and needs a jolt of new energy in its neck bolts. There are county leaders who would support a call for change at the top -- preferably someone outside Jersey City.

In the meantime, DeGise has been busy being pleasant with Sacco and Stack. If he loses the backing of one of the two, he is gone. There is some hope because in life and politics there are always reversals of fortune -- just ask former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano and Jersey City Councilman and "treasurer" Mariano Vega.

Much depends on the change in dynamics among the county's three state senators because of Christie's ascent.

Recently, Cunningham met with Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester. Sweeney (as in South Jersey power broker George Norcross) has been meeting with everyone because he has his eyes on Sen. Richard Codey's title, Senate president.

Cunningham's new unofficial position as the Hudson County liaison to the governor puts her in a unique position. Hudson Democrats have to see her first if they want to do business with Christie.

Now go back about a month. The first North Jersey Democrat to publicly endorse Sweeney for Codey's job was Stack.

Today, there is a feeling in South Jersey that they can do more business with Cunningham than Stack, who is considered too unpredictable.

There are some, in both parties, who say Cunningham even has a shot of moving up from majority whip to Senate majority leader should Sweeney win the coveted Senate presidency. They said it, not me.

Why would Stack's stock fall with South Jersey Dems? They (Norcross) probably have never forgiven him. They asked him in 2008 to back U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews against incumbent U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Stack refused to get involved.

Then there is Sacco, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, a powerful panel because it decides who, within the state's politically connected law firms, becomes a judge.

Well, Cunningham also sits on the Judiciary Committee and she will move nominees for benchhood to Christie. The question will then become how many times is Sacco willing to use senatorial courtesy to block appointments?

Some of you are asking why Cunningham, a Democrat, has such pull with a Republican governor? As mentioned many times previously, Christie and Cunningham are pals. It stems from the days when the governor-elect was a friend of the state senator's late husband, Glenn D. Cunningham, who was a U.S. marshal before he became the Jersey City mayor and senator.

Sen. Cunningham is not the HCDeadO's only headache. The chairman of the winning political party (GOP) in the gubernatorial race is the person who provides the new state chief executive with nominations for a variety of paid positions on county boards, such as the tax and election panels.

This means those names will be handed up not by Healy, chairman of the HCDeadO, but instead by Jose Arango, chairman of the Hudson GOP.

It also means that Arango becomes a marked man. The HCDeadO will do all it can to have Arango removed as the GOP chairman by waking the sleepers -- those RINO double-agents who enjoy municipal and county jobs. Oddly, Arango is also employed by Jersey City. He must have had his uses, until now.

SOME OF THOSE INSIDER NOTES

-- Fulop is becoming quite the celebrity these days. He's the Jersey City fresh-faced reformer and the anti-corruption elected official.

He was the focus of a New York Daily News piece on Thursday that rehashed all the bad news with Fulop paraphrasing Jose Marti's quote about being in "the belly of the beast." There was a nice photo of him standing in front of City Hall.

Earlier this week, he attended the Postmaster's Dinner (it has nothing to do with postal services, but now all those wives know it) hosted by former Hoboken City Council candidate Mike Novak at the W Hotel. Fulop was among the 70 invitees, mostly young politicians, lawyers and other professionals.

Fulop aside, why is Novak becoming more and more active in Hoboken and is he using this dinner for a springboard to something?

Back to Steven: This Wednesday, Fulop is co-hosting a "private dinner among friends" at the League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City. It will be held at the Wolfgang Puck American Grille in the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. The other host is Newark North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos, which means he's connected to Steve Adubato Sr.

Thanks for the invite, Steven -- oh wait, I didn't get one.

-- Back in June, I wrote about Dr. Felix Roque, who is spearheading the recall effort against West New York Mayor Sal Vega, driving around town in his luxury Bentley convertible.

Recently, after an argument with town officials over political signs, Roque's Smart car was vandalized -- tires slashed and windshield smashed. At least in the old days Roque would have been still in the vehicle.

One elected official from West New York said that the same "suspects" always broke down his campaign headquarters door. "Finally, I stopped replacing it," he said.

Look for more commando raids, charges of terroristic threats, and possibly even blood being spilled, as in punch in the nose stuff.

West New York pols and their followers definitely have anger issues. Or they're going old school.

-- If you don't know already, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy's license to practice law could be suspended. When was the last time he was in court, plying his trade? The recommendation for disciplinary action was filed by the state Office of Attorney Ethics, which is an arm of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

On Nov. 2, a day before Election Day, the Office of Attorney Ethics petitioned the state Disciplinary Review Board for action against Healy, based on his conviction for obstructing justice and resisting arrest that beautiful summer night when he was face-down near a Bradley Beach tavern.

It's amazing how slowly the legal system moves. Whatever happened to the state appeallate court ruling on former Assemblyman Louis Manzo's effort to have Healy removed from office? Manzo is under federal indictment on corruption charges and isn't paying attention.

The courts must use the ancient Mayan calendar based on a 584-day Venus cycle.

You don't believe me? OK, have you heard about any ruling in the case of Jersey City Councilwoman Nydia Lopez, who is defending herself against allegations that she violated residency laws when she ran for office. Slooow! I think the original court papers were filed by Mr. Cro-magnon.